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Mill Town

2007.10.18

Someone's garden———"When prosperity comes, do not use all of it. "—Confucius

Same garden——“The axis of the earth sticks out visibly through the centre of each and every town or city.”—

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Looking down at the Mill Pond area——“When fortune calls, offer her a chair”

—Yiddish Proverb

The Assabet River runs through town—— “How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Section of the dam——“If you dam a river it stagnates. Running water is beautiful water. So be a channel.”

—English Proverb

Water Bird looking at a reflection of the mill——“Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”—

Langston Hughes

arty car in the mill parking lot——“Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art”—

Leonardo da Vinci

someone's garage——“Kilometers are shorter than miles. Save gas, take your next trip in kilometers.”
—George Carlin

Take a walk with me around an old mill town.

This town has seen a number of revivals—in the 1800's a set of wooden buildings right in the center of town manufactured rug yarn and carpets.

In 1847 the Assabet River was damned up and water diverted into a millpond to provide power for a new mill. In time the carpet firm failed in the business panic of 1857. But the Civil War allowed the Assabet Manufacturing Company, organized in 1862 with Maynard as the managing "agent", to prosper by producing woolens, flannels and blankets for the army. This work was carried on in new brick mill buildings."

"Most of the original mill workers had been local Yankees and Irish immigrants. But by the early 1900's, the Assabet Mills were employing large numbers of newcomers from Finland, Poland, Russia and Italy."

In 1950 the mill closed its operations. Ten businessmen bought the property and started leasing space. The mill was sold again in 1998—renovated and filled with small companies.

The town keeps reinventing itself—

(Enlarge for details)

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